Lawson, IONA Announce Web Services Agreement

Lawson Software, an enterprise independent software vendor (ISV) today announced it has signed an agreement with IONA , a Dublin, Ireland-based Web services integration platform provider with U.S. headquarters in Waltham, Mass.

Under terms of the agreement, Lawson secures the right to use IONA’s Orbix E2A (which stands for End 2 Anywhere) Platform products to develop software designed for the retail industry. The ISV will also market and distribute those products containing IONA’s components.

IONA’s service consists of the Orbix E2A Web Services Integration Platform and the Orbix E2A Application Server Platform. Its platforms are designed to take advantage of Web services standards and service-oriented architectures to provide an open, flexible and low-cost integration solution. According to IONA, Orbix E2A provides the tools and management services needed to eliminate the requirement to deploy one vendor’s technology on both ends of an integration connection.

“With our CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture)-based products and our Web Services Integration platform, IONA is the integration technology the world’s independent software vendors choose when looking to build high-performance and flexible software solutions that meet customer business requirements,” said Bob Sandie, vice president of global alliances at IONA. “We look forward to working with Lawson Software to support the delivery of true cost-savings and ROI for their customers.”

St. Paul, Minn.-based Lawson Software also announced today it is expanding its suite of retail offerings to include solutions for payables management, category management/merchandising and enterprise analytics for retailers.

“Many retailers still lack strong links between front-office and back-office applications,” said Katherine Jones, managing director, Aberdeen Group. “Lawson has developed an offering that makes this comprehensive integration possible. The Lawson expanded Retail suite addresses key functionality concerns, such as automating pricing strategies and managing promotions, and it can be purchased and installed in small bites, integrating over time.”

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